ONLY TWO weeks remain before the completion of the first phase of the peace procedure agreed by the two sides in New York. This is when Greece and Turkey will enter the fray, taking over the negotiating process, in an attempt to find compromise solutions to issues that President Papadopoulos and Rauf Denktash had failed to resolve in the four-and-a-half weeks they had been meeting.
THE GOVERNMENT’S covert advertising campaign for a ‘no-vote’ in the April referendum was officially launched on CyBC TV on Friday night by no lesser person than Papa-Dop’s closest aide and political soul-mate, Tasos Djionis. There were no fireworks, cocktail party or introductory discounts, but I suspect these are scheduled for later on in the campaign.
Four British soldiers were wounded after they were fired on with handguns and rocket-propelled grenades, the US military said today. The soldiers were wounded on Friday in Qalah Salih, about 25 miles south of Amarah, after a crowd of residents gathered around a convoy of coalition vehicles and troops who had arrested a man thought to have fired on them earlier in the day with an RPG.
U.N. ENVOY Alvaro de Soto said yesterday it may be difficult for the two sides to clinch a deal in the next two weeks, but hoped Turkey and Greece would help to push the process forward. Denktash yesterday told reporters De Soto had prepared a four-paragraph document summarising the demands of each side to be discussed next Thursday.
The political equality of the two constituent states is guaranteed by provisions defining their representation within the federal bodies. The constitution refers to representatives holding Greek or Turkish Cypriot internal citizenship, and not to Greek and Turkish Cypriot representatives.
ALITHIA: “Tractors hit the roads on Monday”. Potato farmers are set to hit the streets on Monday with their tractors in a large-scale blockade in retaliation against the government’s failure to meet their demands for early retirement pay-offs.
PEOPLE of all ages flocked to the see the Kouris dam in Limassol overflow yesterday for the first time since it was built in 1988. The Kouris dam is the largest dam in Cyprus with a capacity of 115 million cubic metres of water. According to Phaedros Rousis from the Water Development Department, the highest previous level was 89 million cubic metres.
A Greek Cypriot woman who escaped from Syria by boat with her two children after her Syrian husband kept them prisoner for months, said yesterday she just wanted to put it all behind her. “What’s done is done,” said Eftychia Christodoulou. “I would like to protect my children,” she said.
A YOUNG woman has complained to the Defence Ministry that her fiancé refuses to have sex with her because the army is draining him of all his energy. According to Ministry spokesman Antonis Kritiotis the woman said her fiancé would return home on overnight leave exhausted and fell asleep almost straight away, not even aware of her presence.
THE United Nations has drafted in top flight foreign experts to tackle the thorniest issue of the Annan plan in the event of a solution: property and compensation.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
